MMA Fighting - BTL | Donald Trump Wants UFC White House Event? Jon Jones, UFC Nashville, Taylor-Serrano 3

Episode Date: July 10, 2025

Last week, President Donald Trump revealed that he wants to host a UFC event at the White House to celebrate America's 250th birthday. Is this something that could happen, and if so, what would be the fight to headline such an event? On an all-new edition of Between the Links, the panel answers questions about that possibility, and the fighters' reactions to the idea of a White House UFC card. Additionally, topics may include Jon Jones teasing a comeback just weeks after announcing his retirement, UFC Nashville headlined by Derrick Lewis vs. Tallison Teixeira, the women's boxing event capped off by the Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano trilogy fight, and much more. Join MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Jed Meshew as they answer your questions for the entire show. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Jed Meshew: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@JedKMeshew⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Subscribe:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. The Ma Fighting Studios, this is between the links. And now your host. The iconic voice of Esther Lynn, welcomes you to a brand new edition of BTL. Happy Thursday to us all. And what a busy week. What a busy month. What a busy couple of months it has been over here at M.AFighting.com.

Multiple events being covered. The travel schedule being all crazy. So with Casey in the Big Apple for the historic boxing event at Madison Square Garden, the trilogy fight with Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano. I'm on the production side again. So we're doing a little Q&A. We're doing a little mailbag this week and joining me to answer your questions and deliver takes only as spices this man can give them. From MMAFighting.com.

The climber of all climbers. Where is he? There he is. Jed Bishu from the ATL. How are you, sir? Mike, I'm doing great. I shot a 78 this morning. Nice.

So got out there super early. Have no idea what's been going on. I have not no idea, but have minimal ideas of what's been happening in the world of Vime. Been off the last two days. So, you know, I'm riding high. 78. That's, it's not my lowest career. My lowest round ever is a 77.

So like right in that wheelhouse of really good. happy to talk about whatever we're talking about. I don't know. We're talking about Tim Kennedy. We're talking about what else has happened? What a bit, Ben Ascran. I don't know what else is going on right now.

So let's shoot. UFC might go to the White House. I mean, that's at least what the President of the United States wants to do. John Jones is already talking about coming out of retirement. I mean, there's just, that's sure. It's just a weird time.

We got UFC Nashville. After a week off, we get Derek Lewis versus Talus and Tashara. We do. And I need to record a no-bets bard for that. I might do it after this show. Oh, I haven't looked at that card at all. Oh. Really got a, like, I've looked at it to know what it is,

but I've done no deep dive into this card thus far. It's, uh, it's fight card. It's certainly a card. Uh, it's, it's not great. It's not terrible, but it's, yeah, it's, basically what we've expected from fight night events that are not outside of the united states in 2025 so uh let's hear from you guys this is your show so we're going to answer your questions we're going to talk about all the the news and notes all the craziness and let's get into this

right now super chatters get to the front of the line of course so let's get into this all right we'll star Joseph, knowing that Cyril Gahn is likely the first real challenger for Tommy Aspinall, how many wins is the winner of Saturday's main event away from a title shot? So I'll start up by saying I wouldn't be that confident that Cyril Gahn is a guy right now. I think he's a very unpopular choice amongst the MMA community. I know it is sort of a sensical choice because he's coming off of a quote unquote victory against Alexander Volkov in his last fight, which nobody, including Dana White thought he won. And of all the options that would be somewhat available, I feel like Cyril Gahn is one of the bottom options amongst the fan base right now, because

this guy has gotten many, many title shots at this point. So I don't know how confident I am in that being true, but taking that out of it, Derek Lewis fighting Talasin to Chera Jed, Talosso DeShera about to embark on his ninth professional fight. Just his second UFC fight. This just tells you how great heavyweight is right now. Talos de Chara getting himself a main event in his second pro, second UFC fight. He's the number 13 ranked heavyweight in the UFC's rankings. After beating Justin Taffa, by the way.

Yes. Beating Justin Taff in 35 seconds. Number 13. This is a ranked heavyweight main event we got coming on here. It should tell you everything you need to know about this weight glass. How many wins is the winner of this fight away from fighting for the belt? At most, too, and there's a possibility. It's one.

It's not even, like, impossible that if Derek Lewis wins, something goes wonky. They throw him in, you know, he's a popular guy. Somebody falls out. He's willing to step in on short notice. Like, it's possible. That could happen with the Derek Lewis win here. But the more likely scenario is Derek Lewis wins this, and then I don't, he's, he's, He's currently number nine in the UFC rankings.

Like he's fought all the people above him, which is a problem. You know, like that's honestly, if Derek Lewis wins, I guess they would do Curtis Blades again. Because, you know,

maybe Curtis Blades beats him in the rematch or whatever. But then if he wins that, he gets a title fight. Like, I don't know where he goes with a win because he's fought all these dudes. And so kind of one and a half. Is that a good, like,

is that a, can I give the answer one and a half? Because it feels like it's, it's not three, but like could easily be one or just like two, two at the absolute most, you know? I don't think anybody is like in this division is three wins away from a title fight. Maybe,

well, maybe Justin Topp is like three wins away from a title fight. But outside, like of the ranked guys currently, I don't think anyone is three fights away. Because there's nobody. Like there's truly nobody. If any,

heavyweight just goes out there and gets three finishes in a row or two big finishes in a row that people are talking about there's a very good chance to get a title fight i completely agree with you i think if derrick lewis goes out and just bolts to this era and i've been saying this forever ever since this whole john jones tom asman all debate began like if if we're going to do any fight for tom like just throw derrick lewis in there look who no one cares we just want to see tom fight does are we really going to plant our flag on meritocracy mountain right now for the heavyweight division? Who, why? This is like the worst division to put the flag down.

Let's just have Tom Aspinall fight literally anybody that he can fight right now. And if it's Derek Lewis, so what? Like, who cares? Derek Lewis is fun. People like them. It would do better than Cyril gone on in terms of paper rebis and general fan interest, I think. Yeah, but I think that there is some level of like this, this isn't a total carnival. It's like super carnival-y, but we're not all the way to full carnie side show shit.

And there are a bunch of dudes in front of Derek Lewis right now. And so like, it would be a comedy of errors if Derek Lewis wins this and gets plugged in because a bunch of people fall out and no one will step in. Not saying it can't happen. But the same token, like if he wins one more after this, he's on a three-fight winning streak. and like, sure, Jailton Almeida deserves it, but like, it's going to break down. Honestly,

if I had to, if the over under is set at one and a half, which I think is the right thing, I'm probably taking the under of that. Wouldn't be shocked if I was wrong, but I think I'm taking the under. I do think both men will have to win one more, but it will only just be the one more.

Yeah. I mean, if anyone's getting in there, if it's just like, all right, we have to have Tom, the Aspen, I'll fight on this.

this date. Who are we going to call? Cyril ain't ready or whatever plans they have. Derek Lewis is getting that phone call. Like there's no doubt about it. Derek is, I think he only has two fights left on his deal. He's trying to, or maybe three, I'm not sure. He wants to fight these fights out and just get him done with. So I don't know what his future is going to look like. It's going to be pretty interesting to see he's 40. This is first fight in 14 months, which a lot of people long way off seem to forget. I know he's supposed to fight in November, but the weird. happened the day before and no one really knows it happened because lord knows i asked him and we got the kind of answer that i expected from him which was yeah man i just woke up but didn't feel like

fighting and we knew that wasn't really the the case so we'll see we'll see no one's that far out of it i think derrick is much closer than talus and de sherra but Tommy has been needs people to fight and many of them you got to get this division back on track so uh force what would it take for Francis and Gano to come back to the UFC? A shitload of money. I mean, an absolute dumpster truck full of cash. Anything less than that.

One, because, like, to some extent, you know, there is this idea. I'm reading Mark Remondi's pro wrestling book right now. Not all the way through, but a lot of it does translate to MMA, as we all know. And there is an idea, right, that, like, you can always do business. and so you want to have this but that bridge was so burnt I think Dana could do business with him

because Dana will if you're going to play by the rules Dana lays out, Daniel will do business with you it's just whether you're willing to accept what Dana's going to give and Francis made such a big deal about leaving you know, in my opinion for a good reason for him to come back now for anything less than

just an absolutely astonishing payday is seems really unlikely and the UFC's not going to be inclined to give him that. Like I I would bet you know you should never bet like your own foot but I'm pretty close to me like I would bet my left foot

that he never returns to the UFC. Yeah, he ain't coming back. It's not going to happen. Dana would have to be gone, I think. I think that would have to be part of it. But even then like how is the UFC paying him the most funny?

because their whole business model is not to pay a shit ton of money. And like, I know that the Francis experimented in boxing didn't work, right? Like he lost both his boxing matches. Based on the rumblings and rumors, it seems like he's looking at his next fight being back in boxing. And again, like, you can still sell that. Deonti Wilder just made his return from fake retirement.

Tyson Fury's out here saying, I'm unretiring again. Like that, there's, meet on that bone that Francis can ply. And definitionally, because of how boxing contract work, he'll make way more money. If he comes to the UFC and fights Tom Aspinall. So I, there's just no reason for him to come back at all. Yeah, it would be Dana gone. I don't think like, I mean, money will,

will certainly be helpful. I think freedom of fighting would be possible. Like, if he wanted a box, it would have to be sort of written in his contract that he would have to box that he would be able to. And John Jones would have to be a fight that is like 100% done for that to happen. Which by the way, as we all know, we're, we probably won't get one of those things. Uh, we certainly won't get two and three is absolutely impossible. So, yeah, he ain't coming back. Francis isn't a spry spring chicken either. He's what, 37, 38? Oh, this Francis right now. Uh, I think Francis is 38. He is 38.

He'll be 39 in September. I know it's heavy weight, but he's 39. This man has been through a lot the last few years as well. So while he's like 39 in age, I would say the last few years probably aged him even more. So, yeah, man, it's, uh, he's not coming back. And that's okay.

Yeah, he's fine. I don't even know if he fights for PFL again at this point. Like, especially after the town hall yesterday with coach being like, look man we're not trotting francis out there unless it's like a good fight like we're not squash well he's not squash match in anybody like we're going to trot him out there when the time is right he's still getting ambassador pay that's dumb well i mean do you want you think just trotting him out there for squash matches is what to do with him at this point when he's making yes probably more than any fighter on the roster i don't think that i do not believe

that there is a fight that they can create that outside of maybe co-promoting with someone else and even that's pretty suspect that is genuinely like massively compelling Nemcoff? How much like how much more interesting is that fight to

casual fans than just Francis Inganu is fighting? Is Nimcov like he's juiced it a little bit for us the people watching the show but like we're going to watch anyway. We are a captive audience. The idea Francis Inganu and you're selling the baddest man on the planet. Like he should be fighting for you because that's how you are interesting to the average

Tom, Dick, and Harry, not the people who go to M.AFighton.com, we're going to watch everything because we're sickos. We watch Cage Warriors and KSW and won on Thursday, Friday nights, wherever the hell they're running. Like, it's, he's like one of the marketable assets they have and just like, we're not rolling him out. I was like, I don't know, man. you should try and get that dude to fight every other weekend if you can.

It means definitely got a box deck. But yeah, I mean, it's their approach is definitely interesting because we did have the town hall yesterday. Lazy Bid's asking about it. Has, I don't know if you've watched it yet. Has my faith in the future of PFL increased, wavered, or remain unchanged? I would say mostly unchanged, but I feel like a little bit more positivity. With coach kind of talking the way he was talking, first of all, and I'll just say this with complete honesty, coach is way more likable than Don Davis could ever be.

I mean, it's just, it's just night and day what a different conversation was. It was between the two Don Davis conversations and the coachman conversation. I like the fact that, you know, some of the answers that coach gave was like, oh, this is interesting. Like, what are they going to do with the PFL app? Are they going to add like a boy tie kickboxing elements to PFL? Are they going to grow, try to grow combat sports using the app? And basically they were saying, hey, we're talking to other organizations about doing sort of a fight passy kind of thing on the app where we have all of our events, the international events, plus, you know, some boy Thai events and some regional MMA stuff. And I think it's kind of cool.

Like it helps their scouting process out a little bit. And I think that's a good idea. I love how they're getting rid of the Bellator titles because that is the most confusing shit in the entire universe. So there's things that there's things that like I came out of that conversation feeling like, all right. I mean, at least they're trying this year. And it seems to me, and this is also based on like other conversations that I've had,

it seems like the PFL brass are willing to listen to people who have knowledge of of the sport. They may not have all of the knowledge of the sport, but at least they're willing to listen and act on the ideas of the knowledgeable people they have inside their business, which I think if you watched that town hall yesterday or listen to it, I think you probably came away with it being like, okay, like they are trying to communicate with the brass and be like, yo, we need to do this, we don't need to do this, do more of this. And it seems like they're trying to listen. Now, there is a lot of PR cleanup that they have to do. That is for certain. But I think all in all, it's been like, I mean, coach, obviously, I asked coach when he would give

a grade to the first half of the PFL season. I didn't think he'd go A plus. He did go A plus. I think that's an insane answer. But I think you should be, I mean, I think if you're, if you're PFL. I think you are happy with how this year has gone thus far. I think the finals has to go well. I think your PFL Africa event next week needs to be a fucking slapper. So I think so far like compared to how I felt at this point last year, I feel better about them at this point at this point right now that I did a year ago, if that makes sense. I have yet to listen, so I feel the same. I've felt about them all year, which is, you know, I want to give them credit for their successes.

I think that they are making progress in, like, tangible real ways. It's hard because I also feel like they just consistently take un-forced errors. And so they feel neutral to me, which, you know, at least isn't going backwards totally, but I don't know. This felt like a make or break year for them to me, and they certainly haven't made it. And so sort of by definition, that that's bad in my head. We shall see.

I forgot about this today, but this is a big one. BKFC is having a state of the promotion press conference later today. Rumors of a quote-unquote big signing announcement abound. What's a name they could announce that would genuinely make waves? None? I don't know. Like what? Robbie hasn't signed with him, but there seems to be this, like, broad rumor that he's going there, right? That would make, maybe they announce him fighting Mike Perry.

They'd make a lot of sense. I'd say, like, that matchup could make waves to some extent. And, like, it'll do well. Again, I never hear a shit on BKSC. I respect their product. But, like, I don't, almost by definition, whoever they're signing is someone. one old. You know,

like they don't, they're not signing people in the primes of their careers. And so, you're not making, it's not like, oh shit, the UFC suddenly signed Francis back. We're going to get Francis Tom.

It's like, we could have some fun with Robbie Lawler over in BKFC for sure. That, that'd be kind of cool. But is that making huge waves or just some ripples? I don't know. Yeah, I don't know what they could do to.

Mike Tyson would be like waves, but God, I hope that's not a thing. It'd be terrible waves. I mean, everybody tuned into stupid Netflix thing. People would watch, but I hope that's not the case. You know, like, I don't know who else it would be. How about Jose Aldo? That would make me sad.

Really? That's not, let's not do that. What about this guy, Tony Ferguson? That would be a lot more sad. Yeah. That would be a lot more sad than Joseo. If you're going to make us do one, I guess, do Jose, just because the, the Tony won't be really sad. Yeah, I don't know.

We'll find out. Oh, maybe it's Derek Lewis. Maybe it's just like, hey, Derek's last fight is this Saturday and then we're signing him. What if BKFC announced Tyson Fury. He said he's coming back. I know this is a silly nonsense, but these are the type of announcements that would certainly pop mainstream. So there's just no chance, but yes, that would make waves. 100%.

It wouldn't be. impossible, but for the fact that why would Tyson Fury come back to BKFC to not make as much money as he would in boxing? And so, like, that's it. Just follow the money. Tyson's never going to come back for that paycheck. But like, outside of that, like, yeah, Tyson Fury, you know, he was a bare-knuckle box like boxer in his youth. That could make sense in some capacity, but it would never happen financially. This one makes me sad. Ramazon Temeroff dropped out of his fight after Mike chosen for his fantasy league. Same thing happened with Alessandro Costa last time. What gives? So if you are a UFC flyweight and I draft you in fantasy, like just

be prepared to not fight this year. Yeah, you're just not fighting. This is so brutal, man. And AK losing Meyer Buena Silva, like right after as well is just the nature of this fantasy game. It's, it's a silly goose. It's a great concept, but it's, it's such an emotional roller coaster ride. It's a very silly goose. And when I first conceived it, I did. did not realize how much that stuff will, like, hurt. And it happens. Because the thing, the truth is, it mostly evans out. Like, everybody last season had at least one fight or not compete.

And so, like, it's just, that's just everybody's drafting 12 people. It's unlikely all of yours are going to make it to their fights on time or whatever. But it still doesn't make it any less painful. The benefit for you is at least it happened early. So there is the option. that by the end of the year, you know, hopefully it's not, I have no idea what the injury was, but maybe could make the turnaround and still compete, even if it's not, you know, the one. And was Timor fighting next week or this week?

This was fighting Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi. So three weeks from now, whatever. Yeah. You know. I mean, I saw some fighters say that they think he popped for something, which would be, which is just be horrible. There's really no coming back from that this year, more than likely.

even if he gets like a light suspension, he's not fighting this year. Yeah. If he popped, then that's, that's the end of his fantasy run for you for sure. Unbelievable. A little bird saying,

Fador could be the big announcement, Chad. That would make me really sad. I really, really hope that's not true. Would you want to see Fador fight again in any way, shape, or form? No.

Fador is pushing 50. How old is he? Fador is 48, turning 49 and 7%. What if they did Fador versus Alexiolinick, would you feel better about it? No. I mean, I would feel better about it at least, but I don't want to see either of those men get hurt. Like, unless it's Fador fighting me, who he will still absolutely 100% win, I don't, I don't need it.

No, thanks. Michael Sparks, what are y'all's thoughts on maybe getting rid of the trash bonuses and just do like 75K finish bonuses? So you and I have been tooting this horn for years now. Forever. The $50,000 bonuses are silly. We should just do any finish. You get some extra pay. So yeah.

Yeah. It makes the whole concept makes no sense because the concept of the bonus is people will fight for the bonus. Well, I mean, what you want is finishes. So incentivize finishes. And don't be like, well, your finish needs to either be the. only finish on the card are super good. It's just, yeah, just cut everybody's, everybody's on a flat salary instead of a show win,

because that's stupid. And then there's finish bonuses for everybody. It seems incredibly simple to me. Forrest, who has the most to lose and who has the most to gain at UFC Nashville? I think you all might have to pull this card up. You're saying, got to pull that up. So let me take a gander here. I think most to you.

I think most to lose. It's Stephen Thompson. I don't think so. I won't go with him. I'm going. I mean, it's Stephen Thompson or it's Calvin Cater. I think it's Cater.

I think it's certainly Cater. Wonderboys get two fights left on his deal. He's very realistic about where he goes. I just dropped my interview with him. He's basically looking at it like, hey, if these two fights go great, then like, I'll keep fighting. And if they don't, like, then I'll just be a, I'll be a, I'll be a, on the broadcast desk.

Like, it's fine. And again, this is a guy who is, he's legitimately, when he steps into that octagon on Saturday is the oldest fighter on the roster at 42 years of age. And this is a guy who has not had to fight in pretty much his entire career. Like, this guy does not have to fight to support himself. He fights because he just likes fighting. So I think he's. very realistic in the fact that he knows he's not fighting for a belt and all of those things.

But this is a guy who knows like, hey, this could be the second to last fight of my career. And this is a guy who's beating Joaquin Buckley until he didn't, in my opinion. So he's still very careful. He was absolutely winning that fight until the end. Until he got knocked out with like three minutes left in the fight. So I don't think he's got much to lose. Cater, it's going to be interesting if they keep him around if he loses to see. Steve Garcia.

Wonderboy, if he's got one fight left in this deal, like they're going to let Wonderboy fight it out. He's been a company guy. They like him a lot. They'll re-sign him. Even if he wants to keep going, they'd resign him,

I think. Yeah, give him Gabriel Bonfim. If he loses the Bonfeme, like he said, uh, I even asked him, I said,

if you have, if you made the decision tomorrow and said, all right, I'm fighting these two fights out and I'm done. After this fight, like, who's the guy you'd want to have the last fight with? he said Carlos Proches.

Let's just go in there. Like we'll go on our shields. We'll just kick each other and punch each other really hard until somebody falls. And then I'll go on my merry way. I like that idea. Yeah, that'd be fun. Most a game. Is it Talison?

I mean, yes, but also like even if he loses, like he gains. And so it's probably it. I mean, bomb theme gets to get rocketed into the ranking. and be like a guy.

I don't know. Yeah, it's probably still Talison, but you can convince me Bonfim or even Steve Garcia. All three of those matchups are just like, here's an old person. Will you put this old person down and take their place?

Is it like, it is entirely a top three matchups of, will the old dog get put down? Boy, there's not a lot of stakes in this card, is there? Like overall outside of the game? I mean,

Because of what you are right now. Tough. Lauren Murphy's final fight happening on Saturday as well. She's retiring after this one. So. Didn't realize that she was retiring until earlier this week when somebody mentioned it.

Yeah. So this is it? She didn't want to go out on that just. She has a foxes. That just got a judge fight. That was. I was like a while ago, wasn't it? Was that the,

was that the Jamal Hill Glover to share a card? I have no idea. Hold on. You have C-283? it was. Yeah, it's so long ago. Geez.

Two years. Two and a half, yeah. Two and a half, yeah. Damn. Yeah, she took an asswop in that fight. I love Lauren Murphy, too. One of my favorite fighters to talk to, I still say to this day,

the most brutally honest interview that I've ever had, she was willing to come on after she fought for the belt against Valentina Shvchenko and just talked about what it was like. to basically just get beat up by an all-time great. And when she realized, yeah, this is way different than anything that I've seen before.

She is a massive underdog to Eduardo Mora. There's a lot of $6.50 per our friends at Fandul. I might have to take a shot here. I mean, that's just a really, I mean, again, retiring fighter, they rarely win their retirement fights, but yish. Edwardomor being minus 650 I'm not really sure that's appropriate

Are there plans to release Shells Fantasy League formats of the public? We already did. Yeah. There's an article on the website showing the scoring and everything. Format's pretty... I kept it as like when I created it,

I kept it super simple. So we... Because like there's not a league that tracks this. So I have to be done on spreadsheets or whatever. It's 100 points for a win, 50 points for a bonus, 50 points for a finish,

50 points for a title fight, or 25 points for a title fight, 25 points for a main event, something like that. I hear I pull it back up, but it's like 300 max per fighter, per fight points and one in each weight class and a wild card. The roster bots did some things yesterday. We haven't like fully confirmed all of these,

but I would probably feel confident that all of these names would certainly be on this list. So the question is from Worship. Any of the UFC cuts announced today surprise you. DWCS is clearly upon us. The names are- We have a rumored cuts. Trevin Giles. Okay.

Jordan Vucenic. Okay. Anglosa. Okay. Viviani Arrugio. Viviani Arrucho. that's a little surprising she's ranked

so that would be surprising she's lost to Tracy Cortez though she did but she's like she is hold on she's probably like top she's number 10 in the US really flyweight rankings

oh shit so that would be and that's even after the Cortez lost like that would she's ahead of Miranda Maverick you know like that would be surprising if Arrucho And maybe it's just she fought her contract out and, you know, that's it. I don't know the terms there, but that one would be a little surprising.

Even though, I mean, you look, she's old, right? She's been around for a hot minute. What is she? 30 something, right? 38, yeah, about to be 39. But she had won her fight before this. I would assume that if she's exited, it's not she got released. It is she did not get re-signed.

Yeah. Or she's retiring and hasn't shared that information publicly. Could be. 38, going to be 39. It's, you know, it's old. When did she fight before? Was it a 3-11 she fought? I just had her pulled up and then I brought that down.

So hold on. No. She fought Greenie Silva at 309. 309. So that was November. Right? Yep. Correct.

Okay. Yeah, okay. And like... I'm trying to see like what she's making, like purse-wise, but we're not getting... I don't really see that info from anybody, so... She's, you know, she's two and four in her last six, but the losses are Tracy Cortez, Natalia Silva, Amanda Heba, Alexo Grasso. Like, those are all...

All of them are top ten fighters in their respective weight classes. 13 fights. She's probably making like 50 and 50. So... Yeah. there's probably just okay let's let's get that off the payroll more than anything it's still be a little surprised but how can you ever be surprised at what if this company just cuts people who are making money because all they want to do is they if the ufc could do it they would be a hundred percent

happy with every fighter making 10 in 10 and all being contender series people and they wouldn't care at all they would happily do that hunter oh god yeah they're so excited excited for contender series coming up. Yeah. They're going to get 50. That's why Dana says they do twice as many. It's like, come on. And don't buy it.

I think they took 40. Hold on. I actually have that number in front of me. They broke the record every year. Give me a second. How many did they take last year? 42 new signees. This was not including people who have subsequently been signed for one reason or another,

but that was at the completion of the season. They had officially signed 42 new signies. The 2023 season, they signed, where is it? 47. So they did go down a little bit from 2023 to 24. But again, probably 45 new fighters coming to the roster. They're all making 10 and 10. You also have to remember, they tried to sign Arton Dude for 10 and 10.

And they was like, no. And they're like, well, you're not going to be here. It's like, cool, I'm going back to glory. So I regalph is like, I'm not taking 10 in 10. You goddamn lunatics. Yeah. They're like, can't, can't break it. Can't make different rules for you.

Yeah. It's awesome. Every year, the contender series proffers them 45 new warm bodies to fill roster spots. They pick up another 50. I mean, they pick up. up another 10 through tough. I think they only do one tough season a year, right?

So like you're talking to 55 new members of the roster every year from those two things. Yeah. Not to mention looking for a fight and all that other stuff. God, it's just so bad. I miss the real contender series. God, I miss it so much. I can confidently tell you as a person who's watched every single one of the last two seasons of fights to do this write up that I do.

there were like half of that that should have been signed. And that's being really generous. Yeah. And that's how the first like a couple of seasons were. Like even if you got finishes and they were impressive, did not, it did not mean you got signed. Like you had to do something super special to get signed. Yeah. You're basically looking at every winner with some exceptions goes.

And losers. If it was a split decision, Dana thought the other guy might have won. He just gives them a comment. But yeah, but you're basically looking at every winner of because they do eight weeks and there are five fights and that's 40. You know, that's how math works. You're looking at every winner plus one or two additional pieces of change coming in there get signed. And just watching all the fights is just like, no, like half of you should probably get signed. If you're really trying to juice the numbers, if you're trying to be restrictive, uh, a court, like they would sign maybe one fighter an episode, like one to two an episode.

Yeah. Not what they're after. Nope. We all know what it is. We can all see through it. Cheap labor is great. That's what this all is, folks. Speaking of waivers,

Matthew is saying we should do waivers in our fantasy league, a big of fantasy football, and I win it on the waivers every year, and then you guys could cycle all players and sag new players and have a weekly waiver episode. So, I mean, it's really hard to do. It is very difficult.

It's straight like when I was, I've been, before we debuted this two and a half year, whatever, this is our third season now, or we're going to be entering our third season now. I had been working on this concept for like four years. Back, like, I pitched this to Shaheen years ago before we finally rolled it out. And like, at various points, it was incredibly complicated because, like, it can be as complicated as you want to make it. If you want to make your own, I know other people have, you can make it as complicated as you want. but because there's not like Yahoo fantasy thing, you know,

like there is ESPN has a fantasy football app or whatever. There's not one of those where it's really like the tech is managing it. It's on a spreadsheet. And I also knew that since this was my creation, I was going to be the person in charge of keeping track with it. And I didn't want to do that shit. Like it's, that's a lot to add to the plate for no gain.

We don't, we're not playing for money or things. and so I kept it as simple as possible. We added a keeper this season because I thought that would be fun. We may slowly start to add some sort of thing like that. It hasn't been necessary because when we all have 12 fighters, everybody losing one fight is fine. If it gets to a point where like actually somebody has six fighters not compete,

then maybe we can find a way around it or whatever because it wouldn't be hard to do a waivers thing. but this wasn't this isn't supposed to be daily fantasy like you just do that you can go to our friends at fandu play daily fantasy m mmma or weekly i guess for mhmap functionally but like it's in that that that that's not the point the point is to draft a fighter and hold on to him and hope they do well for six months yeah and like if we're going to do anything like that much like the keeper you just do like one let's think it would be a one time if we were to introduce it because i thought It would be a one-time thing.

You can take any non-drafted person and get rid of any person on your roster. But you can't get rid of a person who's already competed. So it has to be a person who, you know, has yet to compete and you could swap them out for a blank. So like in your situation, like, oh, cool, they're out. I'm going to pick up random person to fill this slot because I, you know, that's how that would be it. Yeah, which is a risky proposition too, because. is like if Iliot-Toporias booked in August and then you lose him, but you wasted the waiver wire pick on somebody else,

like, that hurt you. That can hurt you in a variety of ways. So it's, yeah, that's an interesting wrinkle that we can add to this. But yeah, as we just started that this whole-

You're goddamn right, Anid-Sirangha, Aeneid-Siranga. God-D-Rangha. You put that comment up, Mike. The people need to see it. this one nico you don't follow f1 at all uh f1 has been in lit for the last like six days been incredible uh nico hookenberg uckenberg uh let me tell you the ballot of nico uckenberg very briefly

mike nico is like a really good race car driver and has been since like 2010 and he had the ignominious title of being the man with the most F1 races without finishing on the podium. And he blew that thing away by like 100 races. It was close to 250 F1 races without a podium, which is an incredible thing to achieve because it means you're good enough to hang around the best race like racing league in the world, but you never like you, a couple of times he screwed up some options, but like he just never got into a good car to make the podium for the most part, which is a really window and it was just like he's never going to get it and nobody ever would have thought he'd gotten it he started in 19th Mike I don't know if you know this there 20 cars on the grid of an

f1 race he started dead last in fact because the number 20 had to start from the pit lane because of shenanigans and you're like okay it wasn't even on the radar that he would finally get it and this past weekend freaking silverstone went insane it was rain everywhere safety cars out the ass. It was a nonsense race. And out of nowhere, Nico Uckenberg finally gets his first podium as like one of the cooler. It's honestly, it's not that dissimilar to Rory winning the Masters, where it's just like, only it's not as high of a cool thing, but it was way less anticipated, whereas Roy was like a betting favorite and could have happened.

It should have never happened. Nico did it. Shout out to Nico. I'm not even a big Nico fan, but that was an awesome ass story. and then Christian Horner got his ass fired yesterday. Hell yeah, F you, Christian Horner, you suck. F1's been banging lately. Next week, karate combat holds a multi-night event

featuring a two-day heavyweight tournament. That's kind of fun. Among the participants, Rebellis to Spain, Alan Belcher, Zach Pauga, and others. Does the booper get it done? I don't know who, wait, who was that? Put that back up. Is Alan Belcher?

Rebellis has to be the boobie. Yeah. Oh, no, he's certainly the Bupa. I'm just trying to look at who the other people that the Bupa would have to fight. I don't know, like, probably. Zach Puyga's not going to get it done. Belcher's like a professional fighter.

So like you could convince me he can make some stuff happen for him. But I don't know, depending on who else is there, rebellus certainly seems like a good bet to succeed. That like karate combat seems like his sport. In the same way that Mike Perry to BKFC is like, fits like a glove, Rebellis seems to really fit in karate combat. Yeah,

because they just give him the worst fighter in the world to just nuke in nine seconds, which is great promotional tactics, by the way. Also, because Rebellis is, I mean, I know that technically he's a mixed martial artist,

but he's a taekwondo guy. That was his whole thing at the Olympics. He was a taekwondo guy. So, like, makes sense that he's in something much closer to a taekwondo league again succeeding as opposed to getting in double leg by Waldo Cortezicoosta and Austin lane an Austin lane but I made a lot of money on Austin Lane so I'm comfortable with that one

happening god damn it uh UFC Abu Dhabi opening odds Marcus Bucccecha plus 140 Martin Boudai minus 160 really that's just that seems surprising yeah uh do you guys know that Martin Boudai is not very good yeah I would be betting Buccci if that line stays similar as we get closer. Yeah. I don't think Buccech is like winning any world titles. No, but Marmada is not good. Yeah, that's, I thought Bucce would be like a minus 350 in that fight.

But never know. Worship. So we're clear. There's a really decent chance while the Cortezico's fights Tom this year. Yeah. He's fighting Sergey Pavlovich in like three weeks. Yeah. And if he beat Sergey Pavlovich.

And if he beats Sergey Povich, she's fighting Tom this year. Michael, I think it's crazy how fast everyone quit talking about Poetan, one loss, and now he ain't the greatest, no more going to be the same with Ilya when he fights Armin. Yeah, a little bit. I mean, I don't know if it's going to be the same because I think I'll eat Armin. I don't know that I'd pick him, but I think he absolutely can. But yeah, like, again, this is the drum I've been beating pretty firmly for the last, like, four years now of like it's great to be excited about people and i never want people to not

be excited about people because that's no fun but like you can't just be like oh they're going to do all of this because they have to do it and if they don't like poeton was getting like is he is he the greatest fighter because he's on because he was exciting it was really fun to root for him and then suddenly lose don't live and you're right like it's not like oh there was the like well he'll never catch John Jones because of this, but like, what if he's just the greatest fighter because everything he's doing is outrageous and we can't believe it? Like, you got to find a middle ground between being excited about the current thing that's happening and thinking it's the greatest thing that's ever happened. Because at some point, it might become the greatest thing that's ever

happened, but like, you're just going to be really wrong a lot. And that's exhausting to me personally. I hope I, Iliu, Taboria goes down as the greatest fighter of all time because it'd be really cool. It would be really cool to see him win the welterweight belt after putting the other sustained lightweight run. And that is a thing to be in the sport. But like, we should let him, I don't know, get three title defenses in a weight class before we're fantasy booking other shit. And in the same, like, Pereira, great run, one of the most magical runs in recent memory. He lost Uncle I have. And now it's like he just sort of went into the dead zone for a hot minute.

Yeah, I mean, the schedule and how often he was fighting, it's just not maintainable. Yeah. It's just not. Like, he was fighting hurt so many different times. He did the UFC so many favors. And then it was just like, okay, I fought four times in 11 months. And then I fight Uncle Life, who's probably the best 205 in the world and is not going to give me the type of fight that I'm looking for. Yeah. I mean, just, that's just what happens. But the problem is it's not. It's not. not it's not even like perera that people aren't necessarily excited about it's unfortunately most people feel he's going to fight an coliath again and there's no interest in that rematch like just none not for me yeah there's just no interest but i'd rather see perrera just go fight

tom aspenal like just give that to tom do it as a favor pay prayer extra money go try to make history and give Tom the biggest fight possible. Alex's ignominious is a great word. Thanks, Jed. It a $2 super chat. Ignominious. Yes. Ignominious is a great word.

It is a great word. Yep. Ignominious. If I could read. We all have our struggles. Yeah. Forrest, what UFC card is the best in July? UFC Nashville, Holloway v.

Pauroix 3 or the Abu Dhabi card headline by Whitaker versus Heinier de Hitter Hanya de Hither Let's take a look at them top to bottom. I remember thinking that the pay-per-view isn't that good. It's not terrible. Oh,

this is the paper-view portion of this card. I'm going to default say Abu-Dhabi's better. Abu-Dhabi's better. Abu-Dhabi's better. Okay. Abu-dhabi's better.

Look, like, there's a decent chance Costa Coppola doesn't happen so like just you know consider that so I don't know Paul Costa is never a guy to believe him like Danny he gave Patricia Pitbull is a fight that would have been way more

like it's still good but would have been way more fun like two years ago um Kevin Holland Daniel Rodriguez is like fine but a main card of a pay-per-view well uh Zell Huber is just gonna annihilate Michael Johnson

so like that's cool to get Zell Huber over but that feels more fight nighty than it does pay-per-viewy straight up this paper view feels like a fight night with one sensational main event to sort of get it over like if Holloway Porre

fell off this card knock on wood godspeed don't want that to happen this would be god awful pay-per-view so I give give me the Abu Dhabi card I think it because Evela Pico is honestly probably the best of all the fights on all of the cards

when you consider that Poyer, like that fight as a fight is going to be way more fun and cool, but Porey is going to retire so that fight isn't leading anywhere for him. You know, where's Holloway standing in a lightweight title picture with a win? Probably not super high given he just got obliterated by the current champion. So I don't know. Whitaker RDR and Evlov Pico

those are those bangers give me the Abu Dhabi card even though it does have Bryce Mitchell the Nazi on it Oh yes he is fighting in Abu Dhabi I forgot about that Yeah Abidav is better though And the aforementioned Boudai Bucachia fight is on that card

Sure is Lots of fantasy implications coming up on at UFC 318 My second My second overall pick Atabagatier about to get his first 2-75er. Sure is. Of the season.

The first of at least two, possibly three. I think he's going to be my number one point-getter and maybe the biggest point-getter of the entire league this year, the more I think about it. Just you wait. Daniel Zellie was going to kill Michael Johnson, and he's turning around for the September no-cha card. He's going to kill whoever they give him,

and then he's going to get one more in. and Zell Huber, you guys let me get a steal. Or Shara, Shara's going to obliterate this dude. He's going to kill him. Mark Andre Barrio is going to get knocked out in four seconds. And then he's going to turn around for the next Abu Dhabi. Have you watched some other bum?

Have you watched our bullet fight? Yeah, I've also watched Mark Andre Barrio fight in his hands are at his ankles. He's getting killed. Barry almost killed a man in his last fight. Yeah. It'll be great. I gained the system this time. Morgan Chambier.

I gained the system so hard. That's a decent pick. Morgan Chari is going to kill Nate Landre. He's like who he's got to get a bonus. I mean, they're both going to, they're going to go insane and then eventually Nate Landre will die because that's how he fights

is he is going to kill or be killed. Morgan Chari wins and he fights the UFC Paris. I just took all people where I was like, you're definitely fighting at this card in the future. I'm getting two bites at the apple with half of my team. we shall see uh despite the betting line is fatima klein versus melissa martina is one of the more intriguing matchups of ufc nashville two young straws with potentially be future divisional star stalwart uh i say yes i know you're very happy because you feel like the team the odds makers

suggest it's not compelling i actually i think i'm going to put money on melissa martinez just because i don't think this should be lined as wide or even close to it. Here's the problem, right? Because the odds makers, our friends at Fandul, they're no morons. This is a classic, just don't bet on this line that they've put out there. And you know how you know this guy, for the gambling newbies out there who don't know things. You won't take a guess at the line, Mike? I don't know if you've looked at it recently.

minus 1050 no but fatima clines minus 1400 oh i'm definitely betting a blisa martinas that see but mike here's the problem because you look at that and think they really don't want you to bet on fatima cline well the melissa martina's line is plus 680 they put a pretty big gap there because they're like you know what don't bet on this fight we don't want your action on this fight That is, you are getting no, no point of reference on Melissa Martinez in comparison. Less than half. It is. There's so many.

There is monstrous. Mike Davis minus 1100 favorite. Holy shit. To a plus 600. It would come back on Mitch Ramirez. They don't want your action on Melissa Martinez and they don't want your action on the team of Klein. Get the hell out of here. Just don't bet this fight is what Fandul is telling everybody.

buddy. Oh, card is just passive favorites. A lot of big favorites next week. Bechreterre. Trito is a minus 800 against a UFC fighter. Yeah. I mean,

that UFC fighter is Austin Lane, but there's a decent, because you're at least getting plus 480 there. There's a chance I'd take a real small shot on him. God, there's a lot of like underdogs on here that, that look interesting. Derek Lewis,

obviously, Stephen Thompson at plus 300. Uh, A lot of big favorites in the undercard. No one drafted Mitch Ramirez, which, or not Mitch Ramirez, sorry, Mike Davis. I think AK kind of regrets that. The problem is he's like Mike Davis is very good. You can get a ton of value in that sense.

But like Mike just doesn't fight. I'll say, will he then fight again? Probably not. It's like drafting Montel Jackson. Like I'd love to have Montel Jackson on my fantasy teams. He might be the best band and weight in the UFC. But he just doesn't fight. So we'll never know.

and he's not a guy that's going to quickly climb the rank. So tough, it's tough. Tough scenes. Thoughts on Robinson Tamaroff failing a drug test after taking medicine in Thailand. Is that what happened? Did he barely talk? Got to stop taking meds in Thailand. Can't be doing that.

Also, my guess is that that's, even if that's the story being told, let's just say I'm skeptical that that's the truth. Let's see. So I'm reading an article That was I didn't really buy Anderson Silva's Thai pill Excuse either so

As we said This is translated by a Russia reporter This is via Temerov social media My fight in Abu Dhabi against Osama Bive Has been canceled The reason is that it was our fault When I arrived in Thailand for training I developed an affection on my leg

And the wound began to fester As an athlete in need to urge in treatment When it was time to take my medication I consulted my nutritionist who prescribed me a drug. I took the drug and drank it. It's never a good sign, by the way. Three days later, the doping control team came to me and took samples. As it turned out later, the drug contained a prohibited substance.

It was my mistake. I didn't check the medicine properly. Didn't inform the doping agency. Now it's all over, but I'm not giving up hope. I will continue to move forward with pure intentions and confidence in the future. Well, fuck me, right? Yeah, that's pretty tough for you. Here's what I'll say.

I think most people watching this, listening to this after the fact, I just don't care about steroids in the sport. It is meaningless to me. If I were in charge, I would just not drug test. So with that being said, if you're operating in a sport with drug testing, you should do it credulously. What I mean by that is if we're going to pretend to care about this, which apparently we've decided we're going to pretend to care about this,

you can't be like, well, that guy, he just forgot. Like, no, they've been drug testing for like a decade now. It is part and parcel of the UFC. And one of the very clear things made is like you, there's an open list of what's banned. If you ever have questions about a supplement, you can submit it to us and ask or anything like that. With the core concept being, don't put random shit in your body. And if you do, tell us that you put. that you put some random shit in your body

to cover your ass because it's CYA that exists in all forms of life and all businesses and all jobs you ever had. And so like, the most generous reading is that he's a moron, a stone cold outright dumbass

who cannot think three feet in front of his head because like, ah, I'm just going to take this random drug and I know that I exist in a league that piss test me. And I don't know what this is, but like, it's probably fine. You know, I'm not even going to tell him I do this. Or he didn't want to tell him for one reason or another.

He didn't want to tell him, hey, I'm taking this substance. And you can draw your conclusions to why that might be. But either he's the dumbest man alive or little shady. I don't care either way, frankly. But that's the only reasonable interpretation here. Yeah. I mean, it's tough to, there's very rare cases where, it's like a true mistake.

The Rob Font situation is probably the one that sticks out most where it was like, all right, like that is a false positive. That was a legit fuck up. And he was legit cleared of everything. Other than that, like it is very, that's like a unicorn in the drug testing world.

Other than that, you are at the minimum careless. Like at the minimum, you're just being careless. I would suggest that it's probably more than that. but like the most generous reading is that you're just like, I didn't tell them. I decided to take this gas station dick pill.

And I was like, it's fine. Like, and I didn't think like, then you're just an idiot. It's not hard to like, hey, here the, dude,

I track my food. That's literally all this is. Like I have a fucking calorie app. I just plug in the shit I eat. You're doing the same thing. Only you're a professional fighter who gets drug tested. It's not hard. Yes.

And if, this is always great advice. Uh, This was Rob Fond's manager Tyson Chartier after the whole Rob Fott situation because it was because of this due diligence was the reason he got cleared. So if you're a fighter dealing with this,

this is what Tyson said. He told me, quote, do yourselves a favor and keep food logs, supplement logs, and food receipts. Never use the full bottle of supplements of hygiene products. Keep a small amount on hand until you get your next test back

and it says you were clear. Take photos of all labels and ingredients, just in case had we not done all this stuff, I don't think we would have been able to clear Rob's name. Yeah, it's easy. That's like, and that's not easy, but like, you're professional athlete. That's, that's the job.

Yeah, part of the job. Or don't and just wear it on the chin. What about John Jones is the return? He's not coming back. I was on, I was on submission radio on Sunday. Shout out to Dennis. We love Dennis.

With our old friend, New York, Rick. Shout it to Ricky. Oh, cool. And obviously this was a topic because John, John was out there tweeting. And I'll tell you all what I said then. John's not coming back. John was coming back.

Who did you come back. John does not. John got a little Henry Sehudo in him when he left and everybody moved on. There was like a day where day and a half where people like, oh shit, that's, whoa, he finally did it. Most people who celebrated like there wasn't like this, wow, let's celebrate one of the greatest careers. Well, it's like, finally, he got his ass out and we can move on. that's entirely his fault.

He would have been celebrated much more if he didn't go about it in the worst possible way. But so he didn't get this wonderful, glorious send-off that I'm certain his ego wanted. And then everybody moved on very quickly because two days later, or whatever, Ilya killed Charles Olaura and that there was a new shiny toy to talk about. And John can't handle that.

John has never been able to handle when there's a new shiny toy. And then Dana White gave, or not Dana White, sorry, Donald Trump gave, like the best thing to be like, ooh, maybe this will get John back. No, why would John come back? You tell me why John will come back. Is it for the money?

He's already getting all the money he was going to get. That number's not going to change. That's not, is it because he wants to do something cool? He still has to fight Tom Aspinall. And I got to tell you, he's not, he's just not doing that. Because if he's fighting Tom Aspinall, you fought Tom Aspinall. Fighting Tom Asperon next July is a much worse idea. Now, if Tom loses and Alex Perey becomes a champion,

then John will come back. I don't know why the UFC would let him come back, but then John would come back if that circumstance happens. But otherwise, no, he's just, he's tweeting, because there's an emptiness inside him and he can't fill it up. And the attention is the only thing that can do it. He is never coming back to fighting ever. She's not happening.

No, he's done. He's done. And it's okay. It's totally okay. It's right. one of one of if not the greatest careers of all time yeah the UFC does not need john jones guys they don't need anybody they do not need a single fighter on their roster to be successful right now and by all accounts they bent over backwards comparatively to make that fight happen gave into all

of john's demands and john was still like nah that there's that he chose not to fight and i don't blame him for that this is not me calling him a coward or whatever, but by every account of it at this point, he chose not to fight. I don't know why he would choose to fight next year. There's when it's a worst fight for him. Yeah. What would headline if the UFC came out and just said like, we're doing this, July 4th, 2026, the lawn of the White House, we're doing an event.

It's going to be Dana White, all the Nelk boys, all of Trump's friends. It's just going to be a private invite, like the Anderson Silva Chil Sunen boxing match. I should put boxing in air quotes. VIP black tie kind of a thing. What's headlining this card? Because it ain't John Jones versus Tom Asmel. Like that's just not. That would be people.

So, Funnishman's in this. We have an article coming out either tomorrow or this weekend where AK&I Fantasy Book it, the UFC Whitehouse card. We just had some fun with that. there are two the let's just say the like John Tom fight would be bad because at that point Tom probably wins

and then England has delivered comeuppance on the White House lawn on July 4th the 250th like that would be terrible that's bad booking if that happens like you need to poison Tom's water the night before to make sure he loses the only way

I think this fight ever happened is these circumstances. And now I honestly think that it's like really possible. And it's Connor Chandler. Because the truth is like Donald Trump is going to want something that he wants for this. Like it's a big spectacle. It's meaningful. And like, I know Dana's got his ear.

But if Dana's like, hey, let me sell you on UFC 250, White House 250, UFC White House, whatever, it's going to. it's going to be Valentina Shivchenko versus Natalia Silva or whatever. Like that's just not going to fly. And because there aren't many like great American stars right now, there's one American champion. It's Kayla Harrison. She might be the co-main event as a result of that, frankly, depending on how the Amanda Nunes fight shakes out.

But Donald, like he's going to, Donald Trump's going to want this to be the biggest event of all time because he's putting it on the White House. And it's like, and the biggest event of all time. is going to have to be Connor. Donald has a relationship with Connor. I don't believe Connor intends to fight again, frankly,

but that's the difference, right? Connor would come back for this. Connor doesn't give a fuck about his legacy. Like, there's no legacy to care. Like, he's a double champ and did that, but like, Connor is about the zeros of the paycheck and doing the biggest thing that can be done always. John fundamentally cares about his legacy

and the concern that his legacy would suffer in a loss, which maybe it would, is enough to be a blocker. Whereas like this is such a big thing. Connor doesn't care if he loses. He cares that he headlined the biggest UFC event of all time on the lawn of the White House with Donald Trump in attendance.

Like that would be a thing for him. And Michael Chandler, Michael Chandler will accept that fight if it comes in 264. Michael Chipper will be in the nursing home saying see you at the top and be like, hell yeah, brother, I'm in. He's never going to say no. Certainly if it's in the White House law and with Donald Juch,

like it's the biggest fight they could make in it's a carnival. It's a circus. But like that's a carnival circus fight. And so I think it's straight up 50, 50 that that happens. Makes sense. Wouldn't surprise me. The only fight that makes sense. You're just going to put a random regular title fight.

No, you need something bombastic and absolutely over the top because doing a thing UFC show on the White House lawn is an over the top bombastic thing. Like, it's the only fight that could happen and the UFC would make it happen because like the president will be like, hey man, I want this to happen. And Conner's my friend to make it happen and it'll go. July 4th, 2026 is on a Saturday as well, which would line up perfectly. it's I mean it'll be absolutely chaos. I feel really bad for Jose if he has to spend his July 4th doing that side show.

But it would be it would be the biggest event we'll ever cover. Yeah. Does this happen? I straight up think it's 50-50. Okay. Would you bet if it was even money and you had to make a bet on it? Is it happening? Yeah.

I'd throw it just for funsies. Like, I wouldn't throw a million dollars on it. Like the thing is my best guess is it happens something similar but not quite the same happens because like I'm old enough to remember when we were promised Fight Island and what we got was Yazurino which they'd already been to and wasn't like Fight Island or anything. It was just like, oh, here's this arena we've been to. But they'll let us play a little fast and loose with the COVID stuff. And so like my guess is it doesn't actually happen on the White House lawn.

but also never underestimate this administration's interest in doing something that seems insane and just being because it's it's a pretty ludicrous thing to be like we're going to hold the UFC event on the lawn of the White House. Why? Why? Like what for what reason to do that? But they get a notion in their head and then like again, 50-50. If Dana is really good friends with Donald Trump, Donald Trump appears to want this.

I'm going to guess he's just going to keep wanting it because that seems to, you know, it doesn't seem like he changes his mind too much about the things he's interested in. And I don't see, I don't see the blocker to it happening other than like everybody just gets bored of the idea by next year. It's got to be interesting. They can pull this off. Because it's, you know, much like Dana White, Donald Trump is a guy who likes to just say things. And then it doesn't have.

happen. It's just, uh, it's just things that happen between. I don't know, man. He did a, hell, a hundred million dollar parade or whatever for his birthday. Like, he can't put a, like, putting a UFC on the White House feels it's insane that this is the timeline, but like that feels incredibly possible. And especially like the traction that immediately got when that was proffered. Like, yes, like mainstream media is like this is ridiculous. But also, they don't give a shit about mainstream media. Why? They ever care. And there's no question that that would be the biggest event of the decade for the UFC. There's no question at all to me that that would be.

And could potentially be the biggest event of all time. Could be. Maybe UFC Nashville. You put Connor McGregor fighting on the White House lawn at least 1.5 million pay-per-views being sold. I refuse to believe there's a dollar less. That'd be in the midst of the new TV deal too. So maybe that's maybe one of their broadcast. just pays a floppy

a trillion dollars just to have the right... What a life we live. What a life we live. Yeah. Do you remember a time when politics did not belong in MMA?

Remember those days? Dana, I'm old enough to remember a lot of things about shut up and dribble and don't bring your politics into my sport. Don't hear the same with that anymore. But say la V.

It's a different world. It's a different world. Well, the UFC is heading to, Oh, Michael Sparks, there won't be tickets to this thing. Let's be true. It's the White House law. There aren't one, you can't ticket because everybody attending would just need to be vetted by the secret surface.

No, this would be a functional semi-private event and the attendees would be Congress. And the Nelk boys. Yeah, like Congress and influencers and the people that like, there wouldn't be selling tickets to this thing at all. Dayport. Noe would be there. Like, it's though that would be your audience. It'd be pretty much a kickstream. Yeah, which would be out lazy bed with an incredible comment.

You should bring up Mike. It's absolutely elite. But yeah, like it just wouldn't be, they wouldn't sell tickets to this. Which means the event, like the atmosphere would probably suck because you'd have just like, dude, like the next time Donald Trump shows up to an event might be 318, though probably not. The next time he comes, he's always coming with a cadre of other political, you know, know, the political entourage. Look at Marco Rubio's face the next time he's on a UFC camera.

That man would rather be anywhere other than Cage side at a fist fight. Like, he just clearly has no interest in being there. But look, we, we've all done stuff for our jobs, you know, like got to suck up to the boss, whatever. Like, we've all done it. But that would just be a collection of people. Like, I assume there wouldn't be many Democrat congresspeople attend. ending. And, you know, certainly there's some MMA fans amongst the various, you know,

senators and representatives who are rightward leaning. But like, I got to tell you, I don't think Marjorie Taylor Green is watching apex cards at home, you know, like, so you're just going to get all of those people. And then the Nelfoys and, you know, the Donald Trump's family. And she's like, none of them are going to cheer. It's going to be like the Saudi shows that are like, eerily quiet because it's just a bunch of, you know, like super rich people who don't actually care. This is a thing to do, not a fandom that they possess. So the event will suck in that regard, but it won't matter because it'll be the biggest

goddamn spectacle on the whole history of the world. True that. Well, before that can happen, the UFC has to head to Music City, USA, Nashville, Tennessee. We'll have a preview show for that. We have the big trilogy matchup between Katie Taylor and Amanda Surrey. We get boots on the ground. For that event, we got multiple boots on the ground. Casey is there.

Jose is there. So lots of coverage on that to Mara Knight from the world's most famous arena, Madison Square Garden. Like I said, we'll have Nashville on Saturday. And then we fast forward our way into next week. We'll have a regular BTL next week. I don't think Casey's traveling at all. We'll get two people on here.

We'll have them battle it out. We'll do the damn thing. It's just, look, it's not easy to like, produce the show and hosted at the same time. It's very difficult, uh, especially for doing a one-on-one matchup. I,

I paid that price when Shaheen came back and my internet went. I just don't want to, I don't want to risk that ever again. Did I tell you the not this past time, the time before when I went on submission radio, Dennis's internet cut out like his computer like died. And so there's a like a 15 minute chunk of submission radio that is, uh,

just functionally me and Jimmy Smith hosting ourselves. That is very funny. Like he just kept off and I like, I didn't even know if it was still good, but the stream stayed up. So it was just me and Jimmy, Jimmy said like, you know,

I've been around a lot. Jimmy obvious has a ton of experience in broadcasting. He's like, all right, it looks like Dennis is gone. So, Jed, what do you think about this?

And we just shot the shit for like 12 minutes. Well, I had to get back on. Just a professional job by a professional broadcast. It's just unbelievable, which took a show. Stole the show. It's amazing. Shout out to Dada.

Shout out to Jimmy Smith. And shout out to all you guys. Get you ready for UFC 318 and Dustin. And your audio went crazy right there. Wow. Didn't hear a single thing you said until wow. It's because the damn music was so loud, apparently. But all right, stick with us.

somebody fighting.com for Jed, I am Mike Hack. Bye-bye, everybody. God damn it. Love y'all. It just sounded like you were talking underwater. Love everybody. Bye. To the Vox Media Podcast Network.